Yeah, I got a few suggestions to have more jokes about him being a dog before we shot it, and maybe not going in that direction was its death knell, but I really didn't want to get into making a bunch of dog puns and having a bunch of jokes where he pours a bottle of beer into a dog bowl and laps it out or whatever. I really just wanted to tell a straightforward cop drama story where the cop just happened to be McGruff. In my mind, he never really did anything dog-like in the commercials and stuff from the 80s/90s. He was just kind of a guy. I wanted him to just be a guy, and throw in some subtle dog stuff here and there.

Katie's great. She came in to play a part that was more of a plot device, and brought her A game to make it a legit good performance.

I thought this was really cool! The production quality, especially in the tracking shots, was sky high. I think the short could have really benefited from addressing the fact that McGruff is a giant talking dog that fights crime, as for the most part this just feels like a normal cop story but the guy is wearing a dog costume for some reason. I think the only dog thing he does in the entire short is when he howls after the civilian dies at the beginning. Gumbel is one of my favorite 101 shows also, but I think that it works because it's HYPER aware of its awkwardness, and forces us to really sit in it, rather than totally ignoring it. If you want to make more eps maybe watch Howard the Duck? This tonally feels very similar. Also, please more Katie Willert next time

Yeah, we made it specifically with Channel 101 in mind and shot it in order to meet the submission deadline. I know it's not as comedic as most 101 stuff tends to be, but I still hoped it would resonate. My favorite 101 show is Gumbel -- certainly funny, but not necessarily a comedy. I'm not comparing my short to Gumbel, but we took a similar approach of playing an inherently absurd premise straight, and the mapping of a straightforward cop drama over McGruff the Crime Dog has inherent comedy in it. I really just wanted to tell a good story, make it feel like a real 80s cop movie, and hope people connected with it.